As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos: 4,073,077; 4,275,514; 4,145,825; and, 4,077,139 the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse auxiliary constructions that were developed to expand or otherwise improve the blade configuration of snow plow blades.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are adequate for this intended purpose and function, they are also deficient in a number of individual respects due their own unique structural configurations.
Briefly stated, the prior art falls into two broad categories, the non-articulated extensible blade assemblies and the articulated extensible blade assemblies. In the latter instance, the articulated blade constructions employ hydraulic cylinders and mechanical linkages that, while providing a wide variety of blade configurations and angular dispositions of the extension element relative to the main plow blade, also require relatively complex hydraulic control mechanisms to effect the desired angular shifts between the respective components. Even in the instance of the non-articulated extensible blade assemblies, hydraulic components are sometimes employed to effect the lateral displacement of the extension elements relative to the main plow blade.
What the prior art has seemingly overlooked or ignored is the fact that a relatively simple approach to the problem of providing extension elements to a plow blade could be adopted that would produce comparable results to the more complex solutions at a fraction of the cost.
In addition, the prior art constructions also seem to have abandoned the precepts of common sense and logic in an attempt to solve this problem, and have consequently apparently adopted the concept that complexity is vastly superior to simplicity; and, the facts simply do not justify that conclusion based on a cost versus benefit rationale.